Fly Past

 Every single photographer I saw and spoke to on my trip to Skomer was after a shot of a puffin coming into land; shoulders back, feet forward and wings outstretched to achieve a stable landing, and after that it was a shot of the birds in flight. As one guy said to me "the success rate is less than 0.5% but we keep on trying". He was not wrong, it is so hard to get a good shot of these birds in flight. They are small and super fast and for me it didn't help that I had the shutter speed too slow for the first few attempts. The first three shots above were shot at 1/640 sec which was clearly too slow to get a clear image, and even the last shot at 1/2000 sec is not as sharp as I would like. The problem is tracking such a small bird at speed, maintaining focus and keeping camera shake to a minimum. Perhaps the guys with gimbals on their tripods had better luck but despite the shortcomings I think that for these hand held shots I did OK. 

Living on the Edge

 I don't think I can say much about these shots, other than it was so exciting to be able to get close to these beautiful creatures. They really are such special birds. I am always amazed at how hardy they are given how small they are and the life they lead, 8 months out at sea, 4 months on a rocky island in a burrow underground.

In a few weeks when their eggs hatch these birds will be on a constant round of fishing and feeding the little pufflings, who when they have fledged effectively just hurl themselves off the cliff into the air and they too will very soon head off out into the wild ocean.

A Cute Couple

 

I still have some other great pictures from my trip to share but I couldn't wait to get to the puffin pics and so I have jumped right in with this cute little couple.

There are over 42,000 pairs of puffins on Skomer at this time of year. At the moment many of them are inside their burrows sitting on eggs or out on the water feeding so while I got to see lots of birds there were not as many on display as at other times of the breeding season. In fact this was the only pair I saw together the whole time I was on the island. It was so cool to catch them preening each other and making gentle "growling" sounds before one went back underground to their egg. I figured it was a changing of the guard situation, perhaps one is relaying information about the best fishing spots while the other is giving an update on the egg.

Did you know that the average lifespan for a puffin is 30 years but the oldest recorded age is 41 years although it is thought likely that birds could live longer than that it is just that the bands used to tag the birds don't last as long as the birds do. They reach maturity and start breeding from 5 - 6 years old and remain with their mate for the rest of their lives. Outside of the breeding season they spend about 8 months apart out at sea, they return to the same nesting sites each spring and somehow from among the thousand of other birds they manage to find each other to raise the next generation of their family.

Feet First

This time of year the puffins on Skomer are busy feeding the young pufflings preparing them to head off into the Atlantic before returning again next spring.

As well as the iconic portrait pictures of these beautiful birde I hoped to capture shots of the birds coming in to land and especially with beaks full of sand eels.

While they are quite curious little birds and on the ground they don't rush off to hide they are small and super quick in the air and capturing good shots in flight is incredibly difficult. I haven't looked through all my shots yet so I don't know whether I have anything better than these. I love the first pose and it is so sharp. The second is less sharp unfortunately but I love the motion that is captured in the shot as the bird comes in to land. What you cant see from this shot is just how necessary it is to be precise but there is a sheer cliff behind the bird and so the landing is always going to be precarious. The other thing is how do the find the right spot every time. These birds nest in burrows and in the dry conditions with very few obvious landmarks so it seems to me that it's a minor miracle that they find the right burrow  every time.

In A Flap

The last of my pictures from Skomer (well the last that I am posting to my blog anyway) and I hope you will agree that they're pretty good. I have really enjoyed sharing my photos from that trip I think they are among my most favourite shots since I started this blog.

Tomorrow I will be choosing something very different and then later in the week I will begin a series of very colourful pictures from a recent day out which I can't wait to share with you.

A Firm Favourite

Yesterday I promised that I had a real treat in store for today, and I defy you to say that I have let you down...

A couple of weeks ago I got to visit Skomer an island bird reserve in Pembrokeshire, managed by The Wildlife Trust of South & West Wales. It is only accessible for a few hours per day and visitor numbers are limited to a maximum of 250 people per day. It is a short boat ride from Martins Haven to the island and then a steep climb from the landing point to what is a wonderful home to colonies of seabirds and many other species of birds. On the day I visited there were only about 100 visitors to the island and it felt like a real privilege to be there. I enjoyed speaking to other photographers (about the birds and about kit) and to some of the warden volunteers whose knowledge really added something to the experience. 

I was especially keen to visit to see the Puffins that were breeding on the island and to be able to get up so close to these iconic birds was a bit of a bucket list item for me. Puffins are on the international Red List of Endangered Species and with decreasing populations they are vulnerable to extinction; although seeing the numbers on Skomer in their burrows, on the cliffs, in the air and on the water it is hard to imagine their total demise. It underlines the importance of places like Skomer where they  enjoy a degree of protection.

So for today I hope you enjoy the three pictures above. I really love them and in the coming days I will share some more. I have pictures of several of the other species from around the island too, and even some landscape shots to share so make sure you come back to see.